"A hardcover edition of this book was published in 1997 by Random House"--T.p. verso. Paradise pickles & preserves -- Pappachi's moth -- Big man the Laltrain, small man the Mombatti -- Abhilash talkies -- God's own country -- Cochin kangaroos -- Wisdom exercise notebooks -- Welcome home, our Sophie Mol -- Mrs. Pillai, Mrs. Eapen, Mrs. Rajagopalan -- River in the boat -- God of small things -- Kochu Thomban -- Pessismist and the optimist -- Work is a struggle -- Crossing -- Few hours later -- Cochin harbor terminus -- History house -- Saving Ammu -- Madras mail -- Cost of living. The story of an Indian family during the 1969 Communist disturbances in Kerala province. It is told through the eyes of a boy and his sister who are the children of a rich rubber planter. Politics, family drama, illicit love. A debut in fiction.

Reviews and Notes

Summary/Annotation -> The story of the tragic decline of an Indian family whose members suffer the terrible consequences of forbidden love, The God of Small Things is set in the state of Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India. Armed only with the invincible innocence of children, the twins Rahel and Esthappen fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family -- their lonely, lovely mother, Ammu (who loves by night the man her children love by day), their blind grandmother, Mammachi (who plays Handel on her violin), their beloved uncle Chacko (Rhodes scholar, pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher), their enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grandaunt), and the ghost of an imperial entomologist's moth (with unusually dense dorsal tufts). When their English cousin and her mother arrive on a Christmas visit, the twins learn that Things Can Change in a Day. That lives can twist into new, ugly shapes, even cease forever. The brilliantly plotted story uncoils with an agonizing sense of foreboding and inevitability. Yet nothing prepares you for what lies at the heart of it.

$a The story of an Indian family during the 1969 Communist disturbances in Kerala province. It is told through the eyes of a boy and his sister who are the children of a rich rubber planter. Politics, family drama, illicit love. A debut in fiction.

This book is so complex with aspects of love, oppression, family, and jealousy intertwined. The authors writing style is truly what is most impressive in drawing you in and leaving you wanting for more. The best part of the book was Arundhati's ability to bring this story full circle as she played on words and the readers interest in the process. Loved this book. Read it with my book club of professional ladies and they all loved it as well. There were parts that you just couldn't get a full handle on, like the political climate, and we all needed a genogram to keep up with the characters, but the underlying story is what is most definitly clear and best advice is just commit to finishing.